When I was
in seminary, I remember attending denominational events for seminarians and new
pastors in which we talked about the “unchurched.” Questions were asked in workshops and
seminars about how we were going to reach the unchurched. Friends were being
called to positions such as Ministers of Outreach whose primarily function was
to seek the unchurched and somehow get them to come to their church.

Though the
language may have changed over the past fifteen years, from referring to those
who don’t go to church as the “unchurched” to the “nones,” the terms we use are
all based on old, and often false, assumptions. We assume that the “unchurched”
have never been to church and just don’t know what it is we have to offer. We assume that they don’t know anything about
the Bible, God, Jesus, or church. We
assume that the “nones” have no spiritual or religious background and were not
brought up with any traditions and that they are out there, lost, and in need
of what we have to offer. Notice that
there are an awful lot of assumptions made in this paragraph about the church,
and the last, big assumption, is that we have what others are looking for.

Okay, wait,
there is one more assumption: we assume that in bringing people from the
outside in we are doing the best thing for them: to make them “churched.”

We want
others to conform to us. We know what’s best, because we’ve been doing it this
way since before we can remember. This
is how you are Christian, this is how you do church. If you are on the outside, you are not
churched.

It’s time to
become unchurched. It’s time to remove
the divisions, that somehow those on the inside have it right. Becoming
unchurched doesn’t mean that those outside have it right, either, but rather we
are removing the distinction of inside vs. outside, churched vs. unchurched,
spiritual vs. religious. It is time to
take off the lens of church that we see everything through. It’s time for us to do our part to break away
from the old assumptions held deep within the walls of the concept of church. It’s also time for us to stop assuming that
people who aren’t in church or affiliated with a local institution of faith are
not spiritual, are not religious, and are lacking something in their life. Maybe it’s less about what we have to offer
and more about what we can learn from listening to each other.

Let us
become unchurched. Let us listen to other’s
stories and share our stories. Let us
focus not on bringing others in but on breaking down divisions. It’s not about closing doors and emptying
buildings as much as it is removing the barriers that have been put in
place. For there is no Jew or Greek, nor
slave nor free, neither male nor female; neither is there church or unchurched,
spiritual or religious, haves or nones; for all are one in Christ Jesus our
Lord.